A warning to mid-sized OTAs: Don't stand still

There’s a real challenge in the travel industry: some OTAs are being held back by a lack of agility while their peers race ahead.

NB: This is a viewpoint by Jackie Groves, sales and marketing director for intuitive.

Traditionally, OTAs were always more innovative and faster moving than tour operators, demonstrating their agility through impressive implementation of better technology. But with some platforms getting older, OTAs need to remember they won’t automatically stay ahead of the game if they don’t keep pace with the changing industry.

In particular, the small to medium OTAs need to make sure they don't get left behind by the industry’s leading lights.

Agility should be ingrained across the business whether it be on the buying side, the selling side or in marketing.

Taking stock

Many OTAs solely work with third parties and have no contracted stock of their own, meaning they exist on thin margins, have less knowledge of resorts and regions and less exclusivity on product.

This brings about several challenges. A strong product mix is needed - not just accommodation but flights, transfers, attractions, tours and more - while payment innovation is essential - customers might require staged payments, low deposits, payment holidays or customer defined payments.

It is technologically difficult to have a platform that supports buying from hundreds of connections, so making sure you partner with one that does is crucial.

To be competitive and keep moving forward, agility is crucial. OTAs need to be able to get new products live more quickly, maximise the benefits of its own stock wherever possible, ensure a lack of own stock isn’t a barrier to success and work with multiple third parties to widen and deepen their product offering.

The importance of channel managers has also risen as hotels have become sharper at yield management and focused themselves on efficiency and speed.

Automatic for the people

Maximising margins is key in the OTA business: minimal customer interaction and as much automation as possible for amendments keeps call-centre staff costs down. In order to sell product without coming into contact with the customer, website quality and the understanding the online booking journey is key.

OTAs need to use first-rate local knowledge to ensure their site has the best and most unique content to attract website visitors and encourage bookings. And they need to ensure that the process from browsing through to selection and purchase is simple fast and efficient.

By plugging in third party product augmenting their own stock, they could have access to high quality product at the touch of a button, meaning they can be more responsive, agile and efficient in the way they react to customer demand.

Effectively maximising contracted stock is also vital for the growth of OTAs, particularly as this is an area where tour operators have historically excelled.

Third-party time

Plugging third-party suppliers into a platform ensures a business can respond quickly to customer demand. You can be as much of a specialist as you need to be, simply by picking the right partners to work with. High quality product can be instantly accessible and sellable. Lower operational costs have a positive effect on margins – and it’s all about the bottom line after all.

OTAs, especially the mid-sized, will be left behind if they can’t respond fast enough to the needs of today’s customer and keep up with a fast-changing industry. The right tech can facilitate OTAs in bringing on more third parties, channel managers and better range of their own stock, with little risk.

Instantly accessible options are the key to quantifiable business growth. The industry changes quickly and new destination trends develop just as fast, so all OTAs need the capability and flexibility to offer new, on-trend products in response to customer demand.

The agility to capitalise on such opportunities is vital to the success of an OTA in such a competitive, quick moving marketplace.

Without the right technology, OTAs just can’t, and won’t, keep up with the competition.

NB: This is a viewpoint by Jackie Groves, sales and marketing director for intuitive.